I am an international student from Mongolia, currently a senior in an AP program in China. I am very interested in Computer Science and my dream schools are Stanford, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon. I currently have three possible routes
A) Apply REA to Stanford, and apply EA to Georgia Institute of Tech, University of Virginia, and University of Michigan: Ann Arbor. Apply RD to MIT, CarnegieMellon, Cornell, and Amherst College.
B) Apply EA to MIT. Also apply EA to CalTech and UChicago and some other uni with EA program. Apply RD to Carnegie
C) Apply ED to Carnegie Mellon. EA to MIT, CalTech, UChicago and others.
My profile: SAT:1450 Essay: 667
GPA: Unweighted 3.98 out of 4.0
Class Ranking: School doesn’t use
Toefl:117 (29 30 28 30)
SAT2: Math II(800) Physics(790) Chinese with Listening(800)
AP: CalculusBC(5) Computer Science A(5)(Self-Studied) Physics C:Mechanics(4)
EC: Volunteer at an orphanage for 2 years, Intern at a high-tier IT company for 2 years, Ping-Pong since 6th grade (national competition 1st place), Published my own apps to the Android Playstore, Outstanding Citizen award etc.
Honors: Kangaroo Math Olympiad 2nd place, Mongolian National Math Olympiad 1st place etc.
I have some more ECs and Honors but not as important. I need recommendations on my three options as well as thoughts on my profile. I prefer Stanford and MIT a little bit over CarnegieMellon. Don’t be afraid to criticise and be honest with me. Thank you in advance.
Highlight your ping pong championship and math olympiad championship in your essay(s). Your stats qualify you for all of those universities, but whether or not you are admitted will depend on your essays.
It seems like your option C incorporates your option B, so I’d strike option B.
Applying early to MIT doesn’t seem to give a boost in admissions and the admission rate for internationals is around 1%. However, I’d lean towards applying EA to MIT and others (plus ED to CMU) since that would give you a wider range of possibilities.
Look at less selective universities and add them to your list.
Do you need financial aid? Are you applying to only US universities?
Can you afford the schools on your list without financial aid? I think you should apply to whichever one you prefer early. If you can afford anyplace, I’d probably add in a couple lower ranked schools to make sure you have chiices.
Yes I don’t feed financial aid. The factors that are causing this dilemma are:
EA MIT: -EA acceptance rate is much lower than Stanford EA
-I heard horror stories of the crazy competition for Asian Males applying for ComputerScience
REA Stanford: -I hear Stanford looks for WellRounded students and I have zero art/music acitivities and my EC does lack leadership qualities.
-I can’t apply to other private schools’ EA which is sort of a gamble
There is no EA advantage applying to either one of these schools. I would apply to the one you prefer that would most limit the number of subsequent applications should you gain early admission. You posted elsewhere an algorithm where you would strategize based on an SAT retake score. That was confusing to me since both schools are extremely competitive and it’s not like a lower SAT hurts you more with one than the other.
@lostaccount@Center I don’t think they speak Chinese in Mongolia, but rather Mongolian, spoken by 95% of the population there. Apparently, the second most common language in Mongolia is Russian, followed by English and Korean. Wikipedia says that there is interest in Chinese, but it does not seem to be spoken widely there.
Mongolian and Chinese are not similar at all. For example, the word “to go” in Chinese is zou, but in Mongolian, it is yavax. Mongolian nouns and verbs have case and tense endings, whereas Chinese nouns and verbs do not. Mongolian is written with the Cyrillic alphabet, while Chinese is written with characters. Therefore, Chinese does indeed appear to be a foreign language for the OP.
What is your primary language? If Chinese, the scores related to Chinese don’t really mean much. If Chinese is a second (or third…) language, then yes those scores are important. How do your SAT scores break down? Because English is not your primary language, you will have some leeway on the reading/writing portion, less on the math, which is why you are asked to take the TOEFL.
Well, my reasoning is that if my SAT is below 1500, I would REA Stanford and apply EA to much less competitive public universities such as UVirginia, UMichigan: Ann Arbor and GIT. But if my SAT is above 1500, I would apply EA to three very competitive universities-- MIT, CalTech, and UChicago-- as well as other private universities.